On Thursday, November 6, Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies will be addressing an audience of over 200 delegates at the Policy Forum for Wales Conference for the first time in her new role as Chief Executive of Mudiad Meithrin.

The fact that Mudiad Meithrin has been invited to address the conference is recognition of the expertise the organization as a leading provider of quality early years care and education in Wales.

The subject of the conference is "The Future of the Foundation Stage and Childcare in Wales’ and Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies’s speech will be part of a discussion on how to improve the quality of care and early years education in Wales. In her speech Dr Gwenllian refers to the challenge of identifying sufficient numbers of staff to deliver the Welsh Government's ambitious plans in terms of the workforce who are eligible to work through the medium of Welsh.

Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies said:

“We very much welcome the fact that the Welsh Government seeks to create a workforce in the childcare sector who can work through the medium of Welsh. Mudiad is working hard to qualify early years practitioners who can work through the medium of Welsh by investing heavily in training with ‘Cam wrth Gam’ - a subsidiary of the Mudiad specializing in early years training, skills, resources and development of the workforce.

We do this to ensure that we have a national body of staff working at the grassroots which can help us to identify and help fill gaps and plan strategically to open new cylchoedd meithrin [Welsh-medium playgroups] and/or offer more wraparound care. This is vital in order to give every child an opportunity to have fun playing and learning through the medium of Welsh.”

Dr Gwenllian Lansdown Davies said:

"More than 2000 people have trained through 'Cam wrth Gam’ and 86% of these stay in the child care sector. Therefore, the work of 'Cam wrth Gam’ is clearly a vital part of the solution to the challenge of finding and recruiting sufficient numbers of qualified early years practitioners who can work through the medium of Welsh. "